Wednesday 18 April 2012

Stories from Australia and New Zealand

NZ troops may leave Afghanistan early
New Zealand troops in Afghanistan could be pulled out earlier than the agreed 2014 deadline.




18 April, 2012

Some 140 New Zealand soldiers are still serving as part of the provincial reconstruction team in Bamyan province, although the Special Air Service finished their deployment at the end of last month.

Prime Minister John Key says it is possible troops could leave Bamyan earlier than 2014, provided NATO agreed with the arrangement.

For article GO HERE.

Australia is making the same move.








Australian jobs on the move to NZ





SMH,
18 April, 2012

HUNDREDS of Australian jobs have been shifted to New Zealand as local producers try to avoid the impact of high wages, a soaring Australian dollar and restrictive labour laws.

Woolworths is the latest to transfer jobs across the Tasman. It transferred 40 contact centre jobs to Auckland this week. Imperial Tobacco has also announced it will move cigarette manufacturing from Sydney to New Zealand.

The companies are following in the footsteps of the food production industry, which has been shifting jobs out of Australia to take advantage of New Zealand's lower wages.
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Heinz Australia recently scrapped more than 300 jobs across three states in favour of its large plant in Hastings, New Zealand's largest food processing and food producing centre.

The International Labour Organisation says Australian manufacturing workers earned more than $US35 an hour in 2008. In New Zealand the rate is under $US20 an hour.

Average weekly earnings for manufacturing workers in Australia are higher than those in Canada, Britain, New Zealand and the United States, says a study which put Australian earnings at more than $1000 a week, versus about $700 in NZ.

Simplot Australia is the last remaining vegetable processor in Tasmania after its rival McCain shifted production to New Zealand in 2010, citing a better return on investment.
Callum Elder, the executive general manager of quality and innovation at Simplot, said penalty rates and wage inflation make Australian processing much more expensive.

''Penalty rates are a significant cost difference to manufacturers, particularly in the agricultural game where you're unable to properly plan,'' Mr Elder said.

This has combined with wage rises that are not matched with productivity improvements, and instead stoked by high salaries in the mining sector and infrastructure projects, he said.

''Our productivity hasn't increased in the past three to four years, as an industry, but yet we've been paying 3 to 4 per cent increases [in wages], which is a large part of the cost. It's very expensive to put people into Australian factories.''

Mr Elder said base pay of $60,000 a year can leap to $100,000 when overtime, payroll and other costs are included. ''The average base salary is probably around $60,000 and there's probably another $20,000 in penalty rates, and the rest comes from surcharges and taxes.''

High wages, penalty rates and productivity of Australian workers has come under attack in recent months. Toyota Australia's chief executive, Max Yasuda, has criticised the culture of his workforce at Altona, Melbourne, where he said absenteeism can be as high as 30 per cent.

Earlier this year the New Zealand Finance Minister, Bill English, told BusinessDay his country was benefiting from a more flexible industrial relations environment, a lack of infrastructure bottlenecks and stable energy prices.

''The IR environment is pretty flexible and has enabled quite a lot of flexibility to our manufacturing sector, which has in the last while been growing, despite the high dollar,'' he said.

The mayor of Hastings, Lawrence Yule, believed New Zealand's ''more holistic view on employment'' appeals to Australian companies.

He cited New Zealand's lower levels of unionisation, ability to operate outside traditional daytime hours, and greater use of seasonal employees. ''Our labour laws are more relaxed, as I'm told,'' he said. ''I've been advised that's part of the mix.''

Peter Burn, director of public policy at the Australian Industry Group, said New Zealand has not followed Australia in ''tightening'' industrial relations settings, and labour laws could prove to be ''the straw that breaks the camel's back'' for some firms. ''Labour laws in themselves aren't going to be the 'knock them down' difference, but could make a difference at the margins.''

Agrifood consultant David McKinna said penalty rates during peak times were putting pressure on the sector. ''If you take the cost of labour, it can run anything up to $50 an hour, whereas in New Zealand it's probably $20," said Dr McKinna, principal at strategic business consultancy McKinna et al.

Jessica Ramsden, spokeswoman for HJ Heinz Co Australia, said the now-closed plant in Girgarre, Victoria, was small by global standards, and the investment to make it competitive was too great. Differences in labour conditions between the two countries did not affect the company's decision.

Jason Hefford, from the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union, said shifts to New Zealand were a concern, but pointed to the high dollar and health and safety obligations over the high wages.




Solid Energy defends gas extraction project
Solid Energy has hit back at criticism from the Green Party that its trial of a technique that turns coal into gas deep underground is unsafe.

18 April, 2012

The state-owned company started trialing the technology at its $22 million pilot plant near Huntly in the Waikato last week.

To convert the coal into gas, air is pumped into one of two wells drilled 350 metres down into the coal seam, and coal is burnt along the seam forcing gas to the surface.
The technique is 70 years old and has been used in 15 countries.

Solid Energy says two billion tonnes of coal could be tapped that would otherwise be uneconomic using conventional methods.

The Green Party is urging independent monitoring of what it says is a dangerous technique which has the potential to contaminate ground water.

But Solid Energy says it will be regularly collecting samples that will be tested by a third party and it promises the Huntly site will be the best monitored in the world.

Chief executive Don Elder told Morning Report the extraction is low risk and has only a minimal environmental impact.

Dr Elder says a nearby aquifer will not be at risk as the wells are sealed tight.
He says the company will conduct air and water quality tests which will be independently audited.





Hard-up workers raiding KiwiSaver

An increasing number of people are raiding their KiwiSaver funds because of financial hardship, budgeting experts say.


18 April, 2012

"When the recession really started to bite a year and a bit ago, there was quite a big increase and it has just stayed really steady," Federation of Family Budgeting Services chief executive Raewyn Fox said.

It was a nationwide trend, particularly in areas hit hard with redundancies. "That is one of the biggest determiners if you lose your income: you have to do something to maintain your assets."

Mangere Budgeting Services chief executive Darryl Evans said his service was seeing about 30 people a week hoping to withdraw their KiwiSaver funds, compared with about five a week last year.

"These are families who are literally one week away from being evicted."

Working families were turning to KiwiSaver as a last resort because perks such as overtime had been cut, he said.

Peg Upfold, of the Hutt City Budget and Advocacy Service, agreed there had been an increase and said some providers were taking a tougher stance.

"That's understandable because some people keep wanting to take another dip and another dip."

Workplace Savings New Zealand executive director Bruce Kerr said anecdotally he knew the number of people taking contributions holidays had grown and that providers had been facing challenges with numbers over the past year or so.

"I can imagine with the economy being the way it is there would be a spike in hardship applications. Depending on their age, this will have a significant impact or a minor impact on their retirement."

But Mr Kerr said KiwiSaver was still growing at a steady rate.

OnePath, which looks after the ANZ and National Bank KiwiSaver funds, has taken about 200 applications each month since about mid-2010 when an increase in applications had been noted.

A spokesman said the numbers were settling down after some peaks before Christmas but were still averaging about 200 a month.

ASB reported the number of people withdrawing from KiwiSaver had risen from 154 in 2008-09 to 712 in the year ending March 2011. Tower reported 161 members withdrew funds in 2011 compared to just 25 members in the year ending March 2009.

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